


Never Let it be Said

by Jade_Tatsu



Series: The Way it Wasn't [4]
Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: Angst, Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-23
Updated: 2012-09-23
Packaged: 2017-11-14 21:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/519869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade_Tatsu/pseuds/Jade_Tatsu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>MetroMan says a few words to MegaMind that the blue alien genius takes to heart and is determined to prove wrong. After that, things are never the same.</p>
<p>The future of the MegaMind Universe, all summarised in one chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Let it be Said

"You're incompetent!"

That was the phrase that started it all. Two words, three if you don't want to include the contraction and the world we knew ended.

It didn't end immediately. No it was more a slow creeping death that no one saw until it was too late. And since most of us are still alive, death is arguable. Freedom is gone though, free speech, and all the other things we think of in our society. They are gone. So is religion and quite a lot of pollution is also gone. So from some angles it might seem great, from others, for those who remember the time before, it is a nightmare. Imagine waking up one day and realising that you had no choice about anything. That's really what happened. For some anyway.

Everyone knows theoretically that they could choose. No one actually makes any choices. I'm one of the few that still has choices and I still make them.

And how does that connect to those words? Well, those were the words that changed the course of history.

You see, once upon a time there was a super-villain. His name was MegaMind and he fought against the super-hero of MetroCity. Sounds fairly easy, right? Almost normal. There were plenty of super-villains and heroes duking it out. Not in MetroCity. In MetroCity there really was only super-hero and one super-villain.

Wow, you might be thinking, that's a cushy job for the hero, only ever having to deal with one villain. You might think that and most of us probably would have been thrilled. Unfortunately though, as can often be the case with a lack of stimulation, repetition becomes obvious. And it was on one fateful day that a frustrated MetroMan made the fatal utterance.

Eh, couldn't be that bad could it? It's not like super-villains have feelings is it? And it's not like MegaMind couldn't see the connection himself.

Take it from me, it was that bad. Oh not at first. At first it appeared as if nothing had changed. MetroMan dragged MegaMind back to the city's prison for Gifted Criminals and about two days later, MegaMind escaped. Yeah, nothing wrong there, that was all par for the course.

It took a couple of years, so it's understandable that no one really noticed it happening and in those days there were technological advancements all the time. Computers, cell phones, televisions, you name it, it was developed and enhanced. Every little thing that could make life easier was embraced. So when a few more inventions showed up, better and brighter than all the rest, is it any wonder that people embraced them? Oh, sure companies copied them and then the lawyers got to have some fun. It wasn't until both Sony and Apple both had to pay out billions in reparation for stealing ideas that anyone really began to see how dangerous the new inventions were. And even then it wasn't that they saw danger, it's just that they realised that the company making and marketing them, one Triple M Industries, was actually serious about defending their intellectual property and had the where-with-all and the moxy to actually do it. The court case had dragged on for years, and they had doggedly stayed in it. The only thing to note is that about three years into the case, Triple M Industries altered their name to Triple M and R Industries. The courts shrugged, the world paid no attention and life went on.

The payout collapsed the two companies and they were quietly bought out. Samsung didn't even bother going appearing when their case came up, instead they cut a deal and by then most of the other companies had been quietly bought up.

There's been a few stock brokers who talk of those times; Of how in the industry there appeared to be a giant shark circling the waters, snapping up every company that showed good sense or decent product, how everything was becoming united under the one company. Most of the world didn't care. Why should they? Food kept appearing, technological gizmos kept appearing, they went to work, they earned their pay, they went home. Nothing changed and nothing was likely to change.

Oh, if only people had paid slightly more attention.

Don't get me wrong. Some people did realise that something was up. Miss Roxanne Ritchi was probably the first to know. She worked out that something was wrong in the two weeks after MegaMind's escape when she was not kidnapped. The weeks turned into a month, and the month into two and she _knew_ then absolutely that something had changed. She had no idea what though and before she could investigate, before anything much could happen KMCP let her go.

Now why would they let their previous star reporter go? Simple, she wasn't rating and television is ruthless that way.

Without the constant attention from either MegaMind or the city's hero MetroMan, while she was pretty, she just didn't rate. Humans are fickle that way, always wanting superficial beauty. Oh the network didn't just fire her, there are rules against that after all. But they did move her on to secondary stories and then into research and background checks and then she was quietly let go. Retrenchments you understand, changing station personal requirements and all those other related excuses.

Three weeks after that, and about a year after MegaMind had last kidnapped her, Roxanne Ritchi disappeared. No signs of a struggle, no takeover of the airwaves with the call for MetroMan to come rescue her, nothing. No body was ever found and after a week or so of interest, people went back to not caring.

And like that, one of the two people who might _possibly_ have been able to warn the world disappeared. The second one, Wayne Scott disappeared half a year later. It did cause a bit of a scandal when Scott Industries was declared bankrupt. The playboy Wayne Scott was at a bit of a loss and truthfully his fortune had been administered by others, never by him, so even if he wanted to turn around the crippling losses he didn't know how. Quietly, almost ceremoniously, Wayne Scott, also known as MetroMan was dumped on to the street. No money, no possessions, very few real friends and almost no prospects.

Five weeks after that he disappeared and no one cared. He cared. MetroMan that is. I know this for a fact because I was there when he died… Or was killed… however you want to say it. It was murder, I acknowledge, cold blooded in the extreme but was the one thing I could never have talked him out of. I didn't really try, I admit. I don't know the details. I do know that it was long and bloody and visceral. It had MetroMan screaming out that he was sorry and I do know that the last words he ever heard were those that started it all.

"You're incompetent."

Because it was true. In so many ways, Wayne Scott, MetroMan was incompetent. He was not that great a super-hero that most thought he was. Not compared with other cities, not when you really looked at the crime statistics. He barely did anything. And he was not capable with music, and as for his ability in running his family's estates… The only reason it took so long for the Scott name to become bankrupt is that the Administrators _were_ decent. MetroMan just spent his income, he didn't care for how it was generated.

Some of the world heroes noticed he was gone, but since there had been no climatic battle, most just assumed he was in hiding or was ashamed and left it be. No one investigated, no one really cared. After all, it wasn't like there was a super-villain threatening MetroCity. In the two or so years that MetroMan had told his foe that he was incompetent, after breaking out of prison MegaMind had disappeared and no one had seen hide nor hair of the super-villain. And strangely no other super-villain had taken up residence in MetroCity.

The world spun on and Triple M and R Industries bought out the Scott's debts and all other holdings and that was the end of that.

After that, there was no one left who could warn them, no one left who would know the people involved. A few people saw what was happening. Some of the other super-heroes and villains and business men and women were not so dense so as not to see as their world was changing around them. For the most part they were bought out, or otherwise… encouraged to be silent. Until everything was ready, and then everything changed, and the world that was died.

Triple M and R Industries showed the world exactly how much they controlled… well… everything. Governments fell, militaries foundered, heroes tried to fight but found it difficult to fight the economy. There was a few who tried to target the owners of Triple M and R but the only problem with that scheme was that no one knew exactly who they were.

And so we are here. The world is one giant corporation and it's ruled as such. There's very little hope if you get fired so you work hard and earn your pay. You don't pay taxes but everything you buy, food, electronics, even your house, it's all provided and owned by Triple M and R Industries. All the money, all life belongs to them.

Do I care about this? Not really… it's just the way the world is. Just the way it was built after those fatal words MetroMan uttered.

How do I know this? That's simple, I know what the three M's and the R stand for. I was there, I watched everything and I saw the damage MetroMan did when he said those words, and I watched as the light faded from green eyes. I saw the world die that day, and a part of me died with it. But I've watched for years after as the phoenix rose and I watch now as the world continues on, never knowing but always feeling the consequences of one man's words.

And somehow I really don't care. After all, after everything that's happened, it's not like anyone will ever dare to call my beloved husband incompetent again.


End file.
